December is normally the busiest time of year for me and January the slowest. The end of the year is normally packed with parties, birthdays and general festivities, but this year everything was a bit more low-key due to the week that lasted a lifetime.

On the plus side, I was even more eager for a fresh start and a brand new year. And happily, we’ve already done a heck of a lot. Here’s a peek inside my diary for the month.

(My planner this year is Erin Condren, which cost about a million pounds to have shipped from the US but it’s my favourite planner and totally almost definitely worth it).

Amsterdam!

Amsterdam has been on my bucket list for ages because it’s so close (a 40 min bus ride & 50 min flight), but I’d originally intended to go for tulip season. Instead, we went for the light festival that takes place in December and January every year. It was a great way to kick off 2017, but the downside was that it made going back to work that much harder (I hate you 5am).

I’ll be blogging about it soon, but if you can’t wait that long, check out the photos on Flickr.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BO948L0Br9R/?taken-by=madebyjenni

Tech events

Our city’s technology events started up again following Christmas, with lots of great talks. I didn’t manage to make it to all the ones I wanted to go to, but I enjoyed Tech Nottingham and Clicky.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPvG9u1Bs0z/?taken-by=madebyjenni

Nintendo Switch launch

The highlight of January was being invited to the Nintendo Switch launch event in London. We played Mario Kart, Breath of the Wild, and lots of 1-2 Switch games.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPSPKO2BsXx/

It was fantastic to be in the Hammersmith Apollo with a bunch of friends playing a load of new games, enjoying free food and drink, and generally just having an amazing time :)

Birthdays

A handful of birthdays this month, but I only made cake for one this time. My friend Chris hates to celebrate his birthday, so I printed some edible tags and made some cake. You’re not escaping that easily, Chris ;)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiLodEhOgj/

And some other things…

One of my friends came to stay, I went to see “Your Name” at the cinema, I had some driving lessons, ate a lot of meals out, took a couple of cats to the vet for annual booster injections, did a lot of food prep, and worked a lot more hours than usual. It’s been a busy month!

How was your January?